Regional development in Turkey and determining the economic and social factors affecting regional development

The concept of development is a multidimensional concept that includes improving people's welfare levels, a fair distribution of income, effective use of resources and components of social and cultural development, as well as economic growth and increase in income levels. As a result of differences in the spatial distribution of various socio-economic resources that play a role in the development of the country, it is not possible for development to occur simultaneously in all points of the country. Accordingly, regional development differences occur between the regions in the country. Each country aims to minimize regional development disparities by implementing regional development policies in accordance with their own expectations. In this study, it was aimed to determine the factors affecting regional development through Factor Analysis, which is one of the multivariate statistical analysis methods, using various socioeconomic indicators that are considered to be effective in the development of regions in Turkey. Factor Analysis was conducted for 81 provinces defined as level 3 regions in the Statistical Region Units Classification for 2008 and 2018. As a result of the analysis, 5 factors affecting regional development were observed. Through these factors, socioeconomic development rankings of the provinces were made and the development levels of the provinces were determined according to the variables used in the analysis. Keywords: Regional development, factor analysis, socio-economic development level of provinces